Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - Chapter 281

Chapter 281

Gu Huaiwei turned around. Fang Zhao was not behind her.

Bai Yuzhen was already in a state of mild Contamination, so she could see things Gu Huaiwei could not.

“You said Fang Zhao is behind me?”

Bai Yuzhen nodded stiffly. Then, as if realizing something, her pupils contracted, and she slapped herself hard across the face. She hit herself so viciously that her cheek immediately turned red.

The pain made her more clear-headed.

“If you can’t see him, but I can, then it means the Contamination in me has gotten worse.” Bai Yuzhen bit her lower lip and grabbed Gu Huaiwei’s wrist. “Shopkeeper Gu, I’ll help you, but you have to save me.”

How could a Five-Star Instance possibly be that easy to clear?

Bai Yuzhen found her earlier naivete laughable.

Ever since entering the Gray Crystal University Instance, the five Trial-takers had quickly been separated. So far, the only one she had managed to contact was Zhang Wenwu. As for the teammates assigned to another class, Bai Yuzhen had completely lost contact with them.

She didn’t even know how many of her teammates had died by now.

The tempting reward was bait.

It hooked Trial-takers like them.

They wanted to eat the bait, but instead the hook pierced through their lips, turning them into the Anomaly’s next meal.

“If you want to help me, come with me.” Gu Huaiwei led Bai Yuzhen back to the cramped, shabby elevator.

“The feeling here is different from when we went into the laboratory equipment room before.” Bai Yuzhen rubbed her goosebump-covered arms, feeling gusts of cold wind all around her.

She stretched out a slender finger and pressed the elevator button several times, but there was no response at all.

“What kind of broken elevator is this? Don’t tell me it’s out of service?”

Gu Huaiwei patted the elevator doors that wouldn’t close properly.

The elevator still didn’t respond.

In the end, Gu Huaiwei could only force the doors all the way open with her hands.

Below was a pitch-black elevator shaft with no visible bottom.

If they followed the cables suspending the elevator, they could climb down.

But if the elevator started moving halfway through, anyone too slow would be crushed into a pulp.

Gu Huaiwei had to take Bai Yuzhen’s life into consideration.

“Let’s look for the Rules instead.”

Bai Yuzhen found the Rules posted near the elevator.

“It says here… if the elevator is damaged, you need to call the repair number. The repair number is 134136… The repairman wears a black uniform and a red ID badge. Anyone wearing white is not a repairman.”

“You handle the rest,” Gu Huaiwei said, leaning against the wall beside them. As she lowered her eyes, her long lashes cast shadows over her face, and she slowly stroked the Little White Dog in her arms.

When it came to following the Rules, it was better to leave it to Bai Yuzhen, an actual Trial-taker.

Bai Yuzhen hesitated for a moment, then took out her phone and prepared to call the repair number.

But after the call connected, no one answered.

She tried twice, and both attempts failed.

“There’s a phone next to the elevator too,” Gu Huaiwei reminded her. “This number looks like some kind of internal line. Try that landline instead.”

The red landline sat right beside the elevator.

Bai Yuzhen picked up the dust-covered phone and brushed away the cobwebs with her fingers. As a result, a tiny black spider crawled onto the back of her hand and bit her. Black Contamination spread across her hand.

“Hiss-” Bai Yuzhen felt a sharp sting on the back of her hand, and the phone slipped from her grasp.

Lin She flashed over like a dark shadow and caught the phone with one hand before it could hit the floor.

“Be careful. Don’t delay Miss Gu’s important business.” Lin She handed the red phone back to Bai Yuzhen.

“Sorry…” Covering the injured back of her hand, Bai Yuzhen looked at Lin She and apologized awkwardly.
Lin She’s skin was pale to begin with, and with that red telephone resting in his palm, it looked like a red plum blossom blooming in his hand.

Bai Yuzhen first sucked some of the blood from the back of her hand and spat it onto the floor, then used the landline to call the repair number.

After the phone rang twice, someone on the other end picked up.

“Sir, the small elevator that goes down from the equipment laboratory is broken. We need you to send someone over to repair it.”

“With so many big elevators, you just had to use the little one behind the garbage room! That elevator is old and falling apart, the biggest pain in the neck. We already warned you not to use it, and you still insist on pretending to be human. What a hassle!” The person on the other end grumbled and cursed for a while.

Worried the repairman might refuse to come inside, Bai Yuzhen spoke gently and patiently, coaxing him along.

And since her attitude was good, the repairman stopped complaining and agreed to come fix the elevator in five minutes.

At the four-and-a-half-minute mark, a repairman in a white uniform came over carrying a toolbox. Half of his white uniform was smeared with ink and grease, making him look bizarre and filthy.

“Is this the elevator that needs fixing?”

According to the Rules, anyone wearing a white uniform was not a repairman.

Bai Yuzhen turned her head away and ignored him.

The repairman in the white uniform kept pestering Bai Yuzhen.

“I know you’re the one who called for repairs… ka-ka-ka… let me help you fix the elevator.”

“Are you done yapping? Can’t you see the young lady doesn’t want to talk to you?” Gu Huaiwei directly snatched the toolbox from the white-uniformed repairman, then threw him outside.

“That’s an Anomaly’s toolbox.” Bai Yuzhen wiped her face, having just witnessed Gu Huaiwei’s violent antics.

She didn’t just beat up Anomalies. She even snatched things Anomalies were holding.

It was such an outrageous move that telling anyone about it would sound like a fantasy tale, yet when it came to Gu Huaiwei, it somehow felt perfectly reasonable.

Gu Huaiwei nodded with a smile. “That’s right. I’ve requisitioned it, just in case the real repairman gets here later and says he doesn’t have any repair tools.”

That was what it meant to be prepared.

Right at the five-minute mark, the real repairman finally appeared, dressed in a black uniform and wearing a red work badge.

The repairman’s face looked familiar.

He had dark skin, and the Leather Drum that had originally hung at his waist had now turned into a toolbox.

Gu Huaiwei greeted him cheerfully, “Long time no see! What are you doing in this Instance?”

The Black-Skinned Bandit had come to do a part-time job.

Under the Black-hearted Merchant’s lead, he could briefly travel to other Instances, so long as he completed the round trip within the allotted time.

The moment he saw Gu Huaiwei-and then the Anomaly companion at the door sprawled on the ground from being thrown-he turned and tried to leave.

“Fix the elevator before you go.” Gu Huaiwei grabbed him by the shoulder. “Why are you running? It’s not like I’d eat a ghost.”

The Black-Skinned Bandit turned his head.

Any thought of luring a Trial-taker into a Rules trap vanished completely.

With lightning speed, the Black-Skinned Bandit fixed the elevator. He didn’t play any tricks or schemes at all, only aiming for speed and efficiency. He was so well-behaved he was practically more obedient than an Anomaly under Contract.

When the elevator started running again, the Black-Skinned Bandit left in a hurry without even taking his toolbox.

He stayed as far away from Gu Huaiwei as possible.

As if he were avoiding the plague.

Bai Yuzhen and Gu Huaiwei stepped into the elevator. Thinking back on the absurd scene just now, Bai Yuzhen pressed her lips together and said, “Shopkeeper Gu, that Anomaly seemed really afraid of you.”

“Nonsense. That was respect,” Gu Huaiwei said with a straight face.

Bai Yuzhen then looked past Gu Huaiwei’s shoulder and said with a smile, “The Class Monitor thinks so too. He also feels that Shopkeeper Gu is someone truly extraordinary.”